April 21, 2017 vs Yomiuri at Tokyo Dome – Messenger recorded his twentieth double-digit strikeout game. He became the first foreign pitcher to accomplish the feat and the fifth player in Hanshin franchise history (behind Yutaka Enatsu’s 69, Minoru Murayama’s 32, Masaaki Koyama’s 27, and Kei Igawa’s 24).

August 4, 2017 vs Yakult at Kyocera Dome – Messenger notched his tenth shutout and became the fifth foreign pitcher in NPB history to record at least ten shutouts during their NPB career. The other four: Tai-Yuan Kuo with twenty-four, Gene Bacque with twenty-two, Joe Stanka with eighteen, and Genji Kaku with seventeen.

October 10, 2017 vs Chunichi at Koshien Stadium – Messenger struck out seven in a row between the second and fourth innings and tied a Hanshin Tigers’ franchise record held by five other pitchers: Masaaki Koyama (1956), Minoru Murayama (1960), Atsushi Nomi (2011), and Shintaro Fujinami (2014).

The NPB record of nine was set by Takao Kajimoto in 1957 and Masayuki Dobashi in 1958.